Author: haroonkhan

When families of procreation of several married siblings are linked to their common family of orientation, they constitute a Lineal Family. Such a family dissolves with the death of their parents, and may become a laterally extended family, or split into individual nuclear families.   Figure 9.10 Composite Group of Nuclear Families   The circled A, B and C are…

Nuclear Family (Also Called Simple or Elementary Family) This consists of Husband, Wife and children (own or adopted). The newly married couple who lives separately is ‘a nuclear family-in-the-making’. It is therefore called a Conjugal Unit. A nuclear family might revert to a conjugal unit when the children grow up and establish their own nuclear…

What significantly affects the family type is the number of spouses, no matter how they have been acquired. When a person has more than one spouse at the same time, it is an instance of Polygamy as against Monogamy. Polygamy is basically of two types: Polygyny (plural wives, single husband) and Polyandry (plural husbands, single wife). There are references to a third type…

The census takes note of the number of persons residing in A family, and calculates the average size of the family. At times, the word ‘household’ is used for such a unit. Again, household has been variously defined in different censuses as (i) a physical structure—one roof—and all persons living under it; or (ii) a…

The biological and bio-social factors discussed above help us to understand the omnipresence of the family. George Peter Murdock conducted an analysis of 250 ‘primitive’ societies using the ethnographies relative to them, and arrived at the conclusion that family was present in all. Murdock defined Family as:   a social group characterized by common residence,…

Family may not be indispensable, in the sense that the functions performed by it can be taken over by other agencies of the social system, or a special agency created for them in society—such as the Israeli Kibbutz or the Soviet Kolhos, which take care of the socialization of the young. Children can be produced by surrogate mothers,3 or through…

Recruitment by birth as the principal mode of enlisting membership is common to all societies. It is this aspect of recruitment that has given prominence to the institution of the family. Apart from religion, family is the only institution that is universally found in all societies. It is the family towards which every individual seems to be…

In all inclusive social systems such as society, replacement is mainly through the process of sexual reproduction. This implies that such a social system has to be heterosexual (that is, consisting of both males and females) in demographic composition. We may recall Marion J. Levy’s definition of society, discussed at length in which he says that…

The difference between a living and a dead social system—of whatever size, be it the largest or the smallest—is the presence, or the disappearance (due to death or migration), of its members. A social system lives through its membership. Individuals who belong to it may die or withdraw; their replacement is a must if a…